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Canadian employers who use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire high-skilled workers say they have been sideswiped by changes intended to curb abuses of the program by businesses in the fast-food sector.

From ski resorts to doctors' offices, employers say they rely on foreign hires

David Lynn, the president and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, has written to Employment Minister Jason Kenney to complain about the recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Lynn says the new rules are a threat to the ski and tourism industry in Western Canada. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Canadian employers who use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire high-skilled workers say they have been sideswiped by changes intended to curb abuses of the program by businesses that employ low-skilled workers in the fast-food sector.

Employers must now pay $1,000 for every temporary foreign worker they want to hire and pass a more rigorous labour market impact assessment test to prove the need to hire a foreign worker over a Canadian, under new rules announced in June. The government introduced a $275 fee last year, but there was no fee prior to April 2013.

Groups in the tourism, health, tech and business community are also complaining they have been inadvertently targeted by the changes announced by Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.

David Lynn, the president and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, told CBC News he wrote to Kenney after his members were "blindsided" by the new rules.

"The number of changes and the magnitude of those changes shocked most people in the business community," Lynn said from Whistler on Tuesday.

"We feel the government should deal directly with people that are abusing the program and not institute a series of draconian changes that impact all of the people adversely, including those people who use the program responsibly."

We strongly urge the government to consider modifications to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to accommodate the unique needs of our industry- David Lynn, president and CEO, Canada West Ski Areas Association

According to Lynn, his members hire approximately 500 temporary foreign workers over a typical ski season and the $1,000 fee is putting at risk an industry that is already struggling to break even.

In a letter to his members, Lynn said he asked Kenney to consider the "major adverse impact" the new rules are having on the ski and tourism industries in Western Canada.

"We strongly urge the government to consider modifications to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to accommodate the unique needs of our industry.

"Specifically, we require the ability to utilize this program to hire seasonal workers, at industry-level wages, and without the burden of high fees and administrative barriers."

Whether a job is considered high-skilled or low-skilled is no longer determined by a standardized list of occupations in the labour market but by whether the position falls above or below the provincial median hourly wage, which currently ranges from a low of $17.26 in P.E.I. to a high of $32.53 in the Northwest Territories.

While the government has said the new system is "more objective and accurate," Lynn said there is some "ambiguity" around that.

"There are concerns the simplistic system of 'high-wage, low-wage' doesn't take into account the skill level and it really doesn't take into account the total compensation, including things like bonuses and gratuities."​

Lynn said he has yet to receive an official response from Kenney.

Doctors in rural communities

Those who recruit physicians say the rules have become so onerous it's becoming next to impossible for hospital and clinics to hire international doctors, particularly in rural communities where there are known shortages.

Under the new rules, the government has promised to process applications within 10 business days for employers who want to hire high-skilled, high-wage workers for four months or less a year.

The rules are much different and I am concerned that we will not be able to continue to support these 16 physicians, not because we don’t need them, but because the program won’t allow us to continue.—Joan Mavrinac, head of the regional physician recruitment office for Essex/Windsor

Joan Mavrinac, the head of the regional physician recruitment office for Essex County, told CBC News it took four to six weeks for the government to process her applications last year, and the additional red tape will only add to the wait times.

She is worried the new rules will deter 16 doctors who live in Detroit but work in Windsor from continuing to work in Canada and discourage other American doctors from practising here.

Mavrinac said she has had to fill out multiple forms and pay multiple fees because the rules say she has to fill out an application for every location a doctor would be hired to work in — be it a hospital, a clinic or a nursing home. "Most physicians do not work in a single location," Mavrinac said. And because work permits are now only good for a one-year period, Mavrinac said, "In a year’s time, we’d have to begin the process again."

Mavrinac said she has complied with the rules and advertised the jobs in more than one job site, but never received a single application from a Canadian doctor looking for work. "No physician I’ve ever met would look for a job on the National Job Bank, nor would they be searching on Kijiji for a job."

"Now, the rules are much different, and I am concerned that we will not be able to continue to support these 16 physicians, not because we don’t need them, but because the program won’t allow us to continue," Mavrinac said.

'Serious economic impact'

Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told CBC News he is also hearing similar complaints from employers who need to hire high-skilled workers across various sectors of the Canadian economy.

"We're hearing from one coast to another. We're hearing there's a real challenge for businesses to get their hands on the high-skilled people they need."

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Beatty said he is worried that ski resorts have yet to hear back from the minister in charge.

"I haven't heard of responses yet, and this is a concern to me, because obviously people are doing planning for the coming winter season … it's going to have a very serious economic impact in many communities across the country."

Beatty said that employers in the tech industry are also being affected by the new rules, which are making it harder for them to hire high-skilled workers such as software developers.

"There are other sectors as well that are having a hard time getting their hands on the people that they need and I hope the government will give a priority to saying: where there are skills that are missing in Canada and where bringing in somebody from abroad would allow a business to be more successful, were to hire more Canadians as a result, we need to expedite this," Beatty said.

Onus on employers to show 'transition plans'

Janet Ecker, the president and CEO of Toronto Financial Services Alliance, was invited to take part in a stakeholder meeting with the immigration minister last week.

Ecker, whose group works with financial services companies located abroad but looking to do business in Toronto, said she told Alexander the new rules are making it more difficult for banks, insurance and pension funds companies to recruit the world's brightest and best talent.

"Our economy is dependent on the ability for talent to move readily in here when we need it, for companies who are located here to have access to global talent. So there's a very strong economic impetus here that can't be ignored."

"I know for a number of our companies it's been very frustrating."

Ecker said both ministers have been receptive to these concerns, but they have yet to offer a solution.

A spokesperson for the minister would not say how Kenney intended to respond to these concerns, but told CBC News the onus is on employers to show the government they are taking steps to reduce the number of foreign workers they hire in high-wage jobs over the long-term.

"Transition plans will oblige employers of high-wage temporary foreign workers to help Canadians obtain in-demand skills through activities like investing in skills training or taking on more apprentices, or an employer can provide proof that they are helping a high-skilled temporary foreign worker transition to becoming a permanent resident of Canada," Alexandra Fortier said in an email, quoting directly from the new rules posted on the Employment and Social Development Canada website.

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